NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC will be reporting on President Trump at the same time that their corporate parent will stand to benefit from Trump’s reputation and popularity. This places NBC’s journalists in an untenable position.

The announcement that President-elect Donald Trump will remain an executive producer on “Celebrity Apprentice” defies NBC’s previous claim that they did not want to be associated with Trump because his bigoted statements had defied the network’s core values.

There were more than 40 mass shootings in the United States last year, prompting many politicians to hold forth and a large number of Americans to simply shake their heads. Now a new group is entering the debate: independent filmmakers.

Sean Penn sat in front of me in history class, junior year at Santa Monica High School — the school rising on a hill with a quadrangle you see in ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’ He kept turning around to talk, the blue-eyed boy with all the questions. The younger, brown-eyed girl had all the answers — at least in history class. At 16, the existentialist devilish streak was already a mile wide. I got to know him well, coming of age.

“Unprecedented” is a word you hear to describe Donald Trump. When searching for some kind of antecedent for Trump’s unlikely ascendance, the closest thing most people have been able to locate — and, believe me, the resemblance is jarring — is an incorrigibly vulgar cartoon blue bear named Waldo.